The Kweendom of Abstraction

killing

What if Trayvon Martin had been the survivor? Standing cast over the lifeless body of George Zimmerman…

Do you think that he would’ve been taken at his word?

Or that the police would have skipped any protocol…such as a drug/alcohol test, a background/wrap sheet check, a call to George Zimmerman’s family, using his own cell phone. How about just checking the phone records on the calling history? That alone would’ve revealed a 911 call and a little more perspective into the series of events.

Do you think the police would’ve hesitated to arrest Trayvon…age be damned? His hoodie alone, the supposed mark of suspicion…would’ve given the police enough reason to stereotype what kind of person Trayvon might be…seeing a need for apprehension and an immediate comprehensive investigation. Do you know that the longer they wait…the “colder” the case gets?

We’re not new to this people…we’re not. We’ve seen many a Black man gunned down by trigger happy police and wannabe police, vigilantes and bigots. Some walking home carrying nothing but a wallet. Some celebrating the last night of being single. Some…accused of glaring too long at a little white girl, “needing” to be made an example of. We’re not new to the slaying of our children, our men, our sisters…these kinds of crimes are hundreds…thousands of years old. The threat of the “brown germ”…giving the non-brown any and every reason to attack, maim, disrespect and rally against.

So, what makes this different? Why is Trayvon different than Yusef Hawkins? Sean Bell? Amadou Diallo? Nothing and everything…

With the careless, non-responsive policing involved…is American hatemongers being told by silence and inaction that a free-for-all can commence on our community? As if there weren’t a million things to worry on as we go about life daily…now we have to be concerned that our young boys can’t even go about the street to the store and back without being considered a target? My 17yr old cousins can’t walk our hometown as it IS because of the violence corroding what was once a community of homes and good schools. Now, there’s this?

We’ve been up in arms about the wrongfully accused, the harshly convicted and the legally lynched. Now once again, faces and voices and pumped fists holding signs are asked to stand up. The never ending fight for rights unobtainable and barely maintained peace ensues and snowballs. Another full on movement is at hand and we’ve got to act swiftly and do what is within our reach. We’re stopping in the middle of women trying to reclaim our vaginas…to reclaim our safety. Our ancestors and fallen civil activists did not die, leaving behind legacies and empty chairs at the head of the table so we could pretend things will get better.

Communities all over have rallied, wearing hoodies as a show of solidarity. Justice is being sought…demanded. Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers…people with family they know could’ve been Trayvon…are making their voices heard. Do a little…do a lot…but, do something. Sign something…SAY something.

Here’s a link to an online petition for the arrest of George Zimmerman. If you want to see Anderson Cooper’s interview of Trayvon’s parents…click here…perhaps seeing the faces of these grieving parents will endear you to the cause.

I watched Rosewood again this morning. I was SO mad when Esther Rolle got killed on her porch…for telling the TRUTH! They knew GOOD and well that woman hadn’t been raped…but rather than admit she was a lying whore…they torched homes, hung families…including women and children all for the “precious honor” of Fannie Taylor.

I saw this movie when it came onto VHS (yes, I rented it, lol) and I just remember being upset and crying at the animalism. The joy they took in killing “negras” and searching for the non-existent rapist. In spite of the fools that led the lynch party…there were a few who refused to be roped (no pun intended) into killing innocent folks on a foolish rampage of imaginary justice. John Wright, played by John Voight (Angelina Jolie’s father) was the merchant who helped hide some of the Rosewood survivors fleeing from imminent death in January 1923…and secured a train ride to Gainsville.

Rosewood was a majorly Black/Seminole Indian populated town that had a thriving community where the families owned their own homes and businesses. They were upstanding citizens who were hunted down like wild dogs to satisfy the lie of a woman afraid to tell her husband the truth. As I watched this movie for what has to have been the 4th or 5th time…I looked at how disgusting hate can be. How ironic it was, to have them refer to Black folks as less than human, when it was THEM who displayed the ways of inhumanity. Barbecuing, dismembering and maiming the bodies of lynched and burnt men and women…ugh.

Anyway, I saw this movie and it had my spirit unsettled for a few. I’m ok now…but, I had to let it out. I think in a way, a part of me questions how much of that hate has REALLY dissipated. How just because we’re not being physically lynched, burned and killed…doesn’t change the fact that there are still hatemongers amongst us with the same mentality. The lynching has turned into false imprisonment and unnecessary brutality. The burning is something like rights being violated…and the killing? Well, they’re still doing that…they’re just finding ways to call it justified.